Just in time for Christmas, the Israel Bureau of Statistics has published figures on Christians living in Israel. According to the report, around 175,000 Christians live in the Holy Land, which makes them 2 percent of the total population. Of those, 77.7 percent are Arab Christians. (Photo Credit: Israel Today)
In 2017, the Christian population in Israel grew by 2.2 percent, quite in contrast to the shrinking Christian populations in many of the neighboring Arab state, including the Palestinian Authority. And even that growth rate is an increase over the 1.4 percent registered in 2016.
Most of Israel’s Christians, 70.6 percent of them, live in the north of the country. Of the non-Arab Christians, 40.9 percent live in Tel Aviv and other central districts, and 33.8 percent live in the north and in Haifa.
The cities with the most Christian inhabitants are Nazareth (22,100), Haifa (15,800), Jerusalem (12,600) and Shfar’am (10,200).
Click here to see a video and photos taken by Israel Today’s Esti Eliraz of Christmas Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
